The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 24]

I3o

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 24

The father provincial, well-pleased with so fine a
company [of religious], divided them among the
provinces. He sent the father reader, Fray Francisco de Villalon,62 to read in Manila, and the father
did that very satisfactorily; for there were many
religious who needed it. He sent excellent missionaries to the province of Bisayas; and it seems that
great pains were taken in this, and he did in this what
the province wished. For he sent it the best of the
company, and no error was made in the selection,
since all of them have become very devout religious
and careful of their ministry.
He sent a procurator to Espafa in the first year of
his provincialate; namely, father Fray Antonio de
Ocampo, a very eloquent preacher, and who was
accordingly esteemed in the province for that, as well
as for the other offices which he had held. But he
had little good fortune on the voyage, for the flagship did not make the voyage that year, because of
having been detained in necessary repairing, and
when it reached the Embocadero there was no wind
to carry it outside, and it returned at the end of
October. The almiranta had time in which to leave,
and made the voyage, although at great risk, reaching Nueva Espafia in a mastless condition.
After the second year of his triennium, the provincial sent another procurator; for the first one,
warned by the voyage, thought that he ought not to
embark again. This was father Fray Hernando
2 Fray Francisco Villalon was minister at Tondo in 1630,
and labored later in the villages of Tambolong, Tanauan, Caruyan,
Bay, Hagonoy, and Guiguinto, until I653. He was twice definitor
(1638, 1653), and prior of the convent of Santo Nino (I645).
He died in Guiguinto in I655. He was well versed in the Tagal
language. See Perez's Catalogo, p. I04.